THRIVING

How much of what we believe about other people is based on what we actually know—and how much is based on what we’ve decided must be true? Someone forgets something, and we assume they’re not paying attention. Someone struggles to get a task started, and we call them lazy. Someone has trouble concentrating, and we decide they aren’t trying hard enough.We see the behavior. We assign a motive. We supply an explanation. And often, we never consider that we might be wrong.

Chronic illness is about far more than what you can see from the outside. There is the pain, the brain fog, the exhaustion, the medications, the appointments, the decisions, the calculations, and the constant effort it takes to live an ordinary life. You may see someone getting dressed, going out, laughing, or doing something around the house. What you don’t see is everything it took to get there—and what it may cost afterward. This is what it feels like to live inside chroni

Sometimes I don’t cope. I’m not giving up, and I’m not looking for a lesson or a silver lining. I’m simply exhausted by the fact that chronic illness is my reality and tired of having to constantly manage it, explain it, and find a way to be okay with it. This is what happens when you’ve spent years coping and finally admit that sometimes, you just don’t want to.

What Chronic Illness and live altering events teach us about boundaries, needs, truth, and coming home to ourselves. Something happens when your body stops allowing you to keep living the way you always have. The conversations with ourselves change, personal boundaries become harder to avoid, the truths you didn’t speak become harder to silence. And eventually you may find yourself asking questions you never expected to have to ask. Coping with life-altering events and chroni

Thinking is how we survive the uncertainty of chronic illness. We can’t just ignore our bodies or pretend everything is fine and we have to think about our health. But sometimes thinking so much keeps us from living today. Thinking constantly-about symptoms, energy, medications and tomorrow. Living with chronic illness has made me question that line I said on stage many years ago. When life changes in ways you never asked for, coping with life altering events and chronic ill

Just when I start feeling Alive and I think I've finally learned how to thrive inside the storm-it finds another way to hit me. Lately, I have felt hopeful, laughed, sung and embraced life. Moments when I’ve thought, maybe this is what thriving inside the storm looks like. Not that the storm has gone away. But that somehow, I have learned how to live inside it. And then—the storm changes. When life changes in ways you never asked for. coping with life altering events and chro

I don’t want to be bitter and mean to other people, but sometimes it’s really hard not to react to their comments, actions, or emotions. This life-changing event has taken its toll on my marriage and friendships, and I wish I had been in a place to realize earlier the impact this has had on those around me and what I could do about it.. Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

I know darkness. I've lived in it. And for a long time, I believed the story it was telling me: that the darkness was taking something from me. That each day spent in the dark was a day subtracted from the person I used to be. That the goal, the only goal, was to get back to the golden light. To return. To recover. To walk out of the storm the same color I walked in. But I was wrong. Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

Your emotions aren't the enemy. They're messengers. They're trying to tell you what matters, what hurts, what needs attention. In the storm, they can feel overwhelming, but they're also proof your heart is still alive, still caring, still fighting for you. Don't mistake your emotions for who you are. Coping with life altering events and chronic illnessWhen life changes in ways you never asked for. Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

They seemed elusive but I found that it begins with the smallest spark, and sometimes that was enough to carry me forward. Anchoring Yourself inside the storm keeps you from being lost and gives you something to hold onto. Something that keeps you from being pulled under, that helps you rise even while you’re still in the storm. coping with life altering events and chronic illnessWhen life changes in ways you never asked for. Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness,

Grieving the life you had before. When life changes in ways you never asked for. Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

How to Re-Engage in Life. Even when the mind is loud and the body feels unsettled you can still create a path back toward a life that feels worth living. Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

How to Create Safety and Re-Engage in Life. Altering the Survival Mindset Trap Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

When life changes in ways you never asked for. Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

The Effects of The Storm. Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

Meeting Yourself Where You Are Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

Quieting the Storm a Path to Healing Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

The You the Storm Can Not Break Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness, and identity loss.

Keeping Hope Alive in the Storm Coping with life-altering events, chronic illness health, identity loss, grief